Murray turns Roger-Vasselin to jelly

Andy Murray today sauntered through the second round of the Australian Open with a comprehensive thrashing of Edouard Roger-Vasselin. Murray lubricated the Frenchman's departure from the tournament 6-1 6-4 6-4, to set up a third-round clash with his compatriot, Michael Llodra.

In truth, the scoreline flattered Roger-Vasselin, with Murray dominant in every area of the court. At 5-0 in the first set, a whitewash looked likely, but the Frenchman dutifully turned the bagel into a baguette with some uninhibited tennis.

Murray will look back on this match as nothing more than a useful loosener, with the 28-year-old's friendly shot placement even ensuring the world number four stayed in the cooling shadow of the Hisense Arena.

As the second set wore on, it was clear that being kept in the shade was figurative rather than literal for Murray and, when he broke at 4-3, it was on the back of a 70% first-serve success rate and an expansive return game that turned Roger-Vasselin into petroleum jelly.

With the third set unwinding in a similar pattern to the second, the most impressive factor for the Scot was his discipline. Murray chased every ball, even when they eventually landed in an adjacent postcode, and seemed keen to give each aspect of his game a workout, with frequent sorties to the forecourt.

The Frenchman, whose father once reached the semi-finals at Roland Garros, looked neat in patches, but his three-quarter-length groundshots couldn't trouble Murray often enough to gain a foothold in the match.

Murray said, "I served well. I didn't give him too many opportunities on my serve, which was important as he played well in the second and third set."

The Scot did concede, however, that the tricky left-hander Llodra could offer sterner opposition, saying: "The next round is tough – he's got a lot of flair, so it'll be a good match."

Today's victory brings Murray's success rate against Frenchmen to 37 out of 38 matches, a sequence that he can extend in the next round and then, potentially, against Monfils and Tsonga. With such credentials, the Scot might find himself whisked off to the next euro summit by David Cameron.

Love the write up Nigel. And good to see Andy winning with ease - he needed to conserve energy after tuesday. At one point well into the match the comms suggested Andy hadn't even broken sweat yet. But those pesky eurosport comms do irritate me - they're like head prefects monitoring young Murray's behaviour every second on the look out for the slightest scowl or mutter. And all in such a patronising tone But even they had to admit how well Andy played

This was certainly a good practice match for Andy. Great to see the serve firing, the powerful forehand much in evidence, and, apart form the occasional muttering, the self-control working. The only slight flaw was Andy's frequent failure to convert BPs.

Truly a pleasure to watch with the added attraction of the rather yummy-looking Frenchman who kept changing his shirt as if he was in a fashion parade.

Love the write up Nigel. And good to see Andy winning with ease - he needed to conserve energy after tuesday. At one point well into the match the comms suggested Andy hadn't even broken sweat yet. But those pesky eurosport comms do irritate me - they're like head prefects monitoring young Murray's behaviour every second on the look out for the slightest scowl or mutter. And all in such a patronising tone But even they had to admit how well Andy played

I think the anchormen do not have much expert knowledge of tennis and struggle for things to say sometimes and instead of doing the hard thing which would be to explore how Lendl can technically help him they are just preparing an easy headline which is that Lendl stops Andy losing his temper. I hope that if Andy is successful in Oz the first thing Lendl says is that it was down to Andy.